U.S. markets climb on cliff deal

Markets closed Wednesday with stocks getting a boost following a last-minute congressional deal that fended off the fiscal cliff.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared to 308.41 points, or a 2.35 percent increase, while the Standard and Poor’s 500 closed at 36.23 points, or an increase of 2.54 percent. The Nasdaq hit 92.75 percent, an increase of 3.07 percent.

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The Dow was up 224.35 points, a boost of 1.71 percent, 15 minutes after markets opened. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index clocked in at 26.48 points up, an increase of 1.8 percent, while the Nasdaq was up 72.35 points, or 2.4 percent.

Those numbers stayed high through Wednesday afternoon: the Dow was up 226 points, or 1.73 percent, at about 1:20 p.m. The S&P jumped up 24.82 points, or 1.74 percent, while the Nasdaq saw a 70.27 point boost, a move of 2.34 percent.

Stock futures were trending upward earlier Wednesday: Dow futures were up 195 points, an increase of 1.5 percent, about 70 minutes before markets opened. Nasdaq futures clocked in at 50.75 points up, or 1.91 percent, and S&P futures were up 25.2 points, or 1.77 percent.

Positive markets news came the morning after Congress hammered out an eleventh-hour agreement to avert the fiscal cliff. The deal, which prevents tax hikes for families making under $450,000, also pushes off deep spending cuts for another two months and does not address the debt ceiling. Had negotiations failed, 2013 would have kicked off with automatic, across-the-board cuts and tax hikes for all Americans.

“At the start of trading, we’ll see a positive reaction … but as we progress toward the latter parts of the week, the excitement will evaporate, because the buildup does not include raising the debt ceiling or longer-term budget cuts,” Fawad Razaqzada, a technical strategist at GFT Markets, told MarketWatch, striking a cautionary note. He added, “The focus will quickly shift toward the end of February when the U.S. is expected to hit its debt ceiling.”

The US heads down the road to financial ruination with ever increasing taxes and ever increasing spending by the demo-crats and their "pied piper" who the demo-crats believe is leading them to the "promise land" of "everything is free if it comes from the government." The "stock market (aka Americans) cheer and rejoice. The "pied piper" is playing the SWEET music that he will take from the rich and give to everyone else (for votes =power) and the music is chorused by the national media "he is so great. he is so great" when the "piper" is really practicing the Regan policy of forcing your enemy to spend itself into insolvency and ultimately collapsing their government. And the stock market cheers!!!

The markets like predictability. It's completely predictable that the tea partiers will try to obstruct every budget, every government program, and any bipartisan agreement of any kind, so we can assume that the markets have already factored that in.